Roughly 40 percent of state and federal prisoners and jail inmates reported having a current chronic medical condition, according to the 2011-2012 National Inmate Survey released in January from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released a report in December 2014 showing the national correctional population dropped by 41,500 persons in 2013. This decrease brought the 2013 yearend nationwide inmate total to 6.89 million and marked a 0.6 percent decrease over 2012 figures — making 2013 the second consecutive year of correctional population decline.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and several of its partners have received the 2014 Policy Impact Award from the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR). The BJS was honored for its innovative efforts to measure sexual victimization in correctional facilities under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). Senior Statistical Advisor and Program Lead for BJS Allen J. Beck accepted the award on behalf of the bureau and its data collection agents, including RTI International of Durham, N.C., Westat of Rockville, Md., National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago and the U.S. Census Bureau, at the annual AAPOR conference on May 17.

Results from the Bureau of Justice Statistics survey of the nation’s correctional facilities find that 4 percent of state and federal prison inmates report being sexually victimized by other inmates or correctional staff. Approximately 3.2 percent of inmates in local jails reported one or more incidents of sexual victimization.